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  • Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles advertised for WWE MSG event

    Don’t hold your breath given changes are made weekly, but I-C champion Kevin Owens vs. A.J. Styles’ first singles match in WWE (at least the first one being advertised) is on the docket for the March 25th MSG house show in NYC, also billed as Daniel Bryan Appreciation Night.

    We incorrectly noted Thursday that the Styles/Owens match would be their first ever. They actually wrestled a singles match in upstate New York a few years ago for the 2CW promotion as well as for the House of Hardcore promotion.

    A new lineup was released Thursday for the show with a number of changes from the original lineup. The new main event has Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose vs. WWE Champion HHH & Sheamus. Originally, HHH was going to be in Sheamus’ corner for a singles match with Reigns.

    Additionally, two other announced matches are U.S. Champion Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio, and Big Show vs. Bray Wyatt. Additionally, Bryan will be there to address the crowd for his Appreciation Night.

  • Lion’s Gate Project 1 results: Nagata vs. Kitamiya; NJPW and NOAH rookies shine

    Announced last year, this morning’s Lion’s Gate event was the first in what is to be a regular series of events highlighting rookies from New Japan, NOAH, and other associated promotions with New Japan. Tonight’s card is a mixture of NOAH and New Japan rookies and veterans squaring off in a nice mix of singles and tag matches.

    Takumi Honjo vs. Shuhei Taniguchi

    Taniguchi is the former Maybach Taniguchi who I guess has taken off his mask in recent weeks and has sided in NOAH in their battle against Suzuki-gun. This is Honjo’s debut match, graduating from the New Japan dojo. The former Maybach isn’t the best first match to have. Honjo looked like someone in his first match and Taniguchi wasn’t that good. Honjo got some chants going for him at least. Taniguchi got the win quickly with a Boston crab.

    Kawato Hirato vs. Hitoshi Kumano

    Kawato is the really young NJPW lion, only 18 years old. He looked good here and showed some fire with his offense, and his strikes look good. This didn’t last long either. Kuwato him have some offense, cut him off and pinned him with a fisherman’s suplex.

    Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

    Kiyomiya is a NOAH rookie, wearing green tights as I guess that’s the rule over in that promotion. He has a good dropkick and handled basics pretty well. It was very much in the same formula as the previous two matches. Taguchi eventually cut him off and got the win with the dodon.

    David Finlay vs. Taiji Ishimori

    Pretty good while it lasted. Ishimori came off looking really good, doing some great dynamic spots throughout the match. I wonder why he didn’t get a spot in the Super Juniors tournament last year. Finlay got some great near falls and submissions, including the stretch muffler. Ishimori gave him a lot. ishimori gave him a uranage then followed with a 450 for the win.

    Jay White vs. Yoshinari Ogawa

    Another good match. White looked good here too. He’s the best out of the current crop of the young lions in terms of overall athleticism and ability. He would have been my rookie of the year if Chad Gable hadn’t come along. He took a lot of this match and people were behind him big time. He even handled some mat wrestling with Ogawa well. He cut him off with an eye poke and tried to go for a superplex but White stopped him. Ogawa avoided him, gave him a dragon screw and put him in a figure four, submitting him.

    Lion’s Gate Project 2 was announced for 5/19.

    Quiet Storm vs. Manabu Nakanishi

    I haven’t seen a singles bout from Nakanishi in forever. There’s a good reason for that. Storm is an interesting story as he wrestled in the very early era of Ring of Honor, was mostly a small independent level guy, then went to Japan in the mid 2000s and has pretty much found consistent work there ever since. They did a lot of big guy spots even though Nakanishi is about a head taller than Storm. Wasn’t bad. Nakanishi can only do so much, but he got all of this spots in and was fine. After Storm teased putting the Rack on Nakanishi, he cut him off and put him in the rack, with Storm quickly submitting.

    Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Captain NOAH

    Genba was billed as Captain Genba as he was wearing a mask like Captain NOAH’s. Kojima & Tenzan dominated a lot of the match. Genba got heat momentarily by cutting off Kojima with a testicular claw. That’s one way of halting a comeback. The masked duo got double submissions on Tencozy but they didn’t submit. Kojima came back with a diamond cutter and a brainbuster but NOAH broke it up, only to get a 3D. Genba tried to get a cheap win with the claw again and a roll up, but Kojima hit the ropes and scored a lariat for the win. Perfectly fine match.

    Juice Robinson vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima

    This was pretty good. Robinson was given a lot and has improved a lot in his time here with New Japan. He’s that weird situation where it doesn’t seem like he’s a young lion, but not really a pushed guy either in New Japan, so he was given a lot more here than other young lions in previous matches. Nakajima is riding a big wave of momentum as he’s pinned Minoru Suzuki and is probably next in line for the GHC Heavyweight title. Robinson also got over big time with the crowd as they were with him from the start. Lots of back and forth great action. Nothing too fancy, but a really well worked match that people got into. Nakajima picked up the win after a brainbuster.

    Yuji Nagata vs. Mitsuhiro Kitamiya

    Kitamiya looked good against Nagata, who did a good job in this match. There’s the occasional showing his age signs here and there, but he’s still a tremendous preformer and looked great here. He gave Kitamiya a lot and they had a pretty good back and forth match, as was the theme for many of tonight’s matches. Nagata hit the backdrop driver but Kitamiya kicked out. Kitamiya laid into Nagata with some slaps but Nagata no sold them and fired back with another backdrop driver for the win. Very nice main event with a great finish.

    Nagata said a few things to close out the show.

    Overall, this was a solid show. Quality wise, maybe about your average New Japan house show, maybe a little less. Nothing really bad, mostly solid to good. The unique matches really added a lot to the show and made it a fun watch.

  • WWE NXT results: Great matches made for the future, okay matches happen in the present

    It’s a show where the future sounded so much better than the present. Bayley and Carmella team up to battle Eva Marie and Nia Jax. Plus, what will Mr. William Regal have to say about the controversial finish to the #1 contender’s match last week?

    • The Big News: Samoa Joe will wrestle Sami Zayn in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match in 2 weeks.
    • The Medium News: Finn Balor will wrestle Neville next week
    • The Little Beaver Sized News: A brand new star will also debut next week.
    • The News Even Smaller Than Little Beaver: On the show that actually aired this week, Eva Marie won the tag team main event, pinning Carmella.

    American Alpha defeated Blake & Murphy

    38 days away from NXT Takeover and we kick things off with American Alpha. We are still at the CFE Arena in the University of Central Florida, for the third week here. The fans still liked Jordan & Gable, but this was already the second time they saw them, so it wasn’t as much love as before. Plus this was minutes after the Samoa Joe-Sami Zayn match that aired last week, so the fans were kind of tired.

    Gable was single handedly destroying both Blake and Murphy. Jordan tagged in long enough for a double dropkick, but other than that the first half of the match was just Gable schooling both men. We went to commercial and came back with Jordan in control. It took almost 7 minutes, but the heels finally cut off Gable for the heat after using double team shenanigans.

    Blake and Murphy continue to work good together. Jordan got the hot tag and hit several suplexes on both men. The good guys picked up the win with Grand Amplitude.

    – After the double pin finish from last week, Mr. William Regal announced a 2 out of 3 Falls match with Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn in 2 weeks. He also announced that a brand new talent would debut next week.

    – Sawyer Fulton sang while “highlights” of his matches aired. He can still be boring even in highlight form.

    Apollo Crews pinned Christopher Girard

    Apollo Crews is back. He has become so directionless since losing at Takeover: London. That loss was such a big deal. Girard looked good in his NXT debut, but the announcers were pointing out his size (or lack thereof) as they said he wasn’t much bigger than Gillberg.

    This was not just a squash match, as Girard got a full entrance and had a competitive match with Crews before going down in defeat. Crews hit his toss Powerbomb to pick up the win.

    – Bayley and Carmella were backstage with Alex, who called them “Baymella”, which was gag worthy. Bayley put over her partner and Carmella said one day she is coming back for the championship. Bayley was happy Asuka helped out, but it’s obvious she’s coming after the championship.

    – Earlier this week, Enzo Amore arrived at the WWE Performance Center when he was attacked by Dash & Dawson. It was shot purely with security cameras, so it looked grainy and definitely not HD, but it looked more real.

    Tommaso Ciampa submitted Bull Dempsey in a Loser Goes To WrestleCon Match

    Actually the winner may be there too, I haven’t checked the list lately.

    Bull needed the referee’s help to get his shirt off because it was so tight. Ciampa was not amused. Dempsey was content to do jumping jacks, as opposed to sports entertaining, so Ciampa made him pay for it. At one point it looked like Dempsey hit the Bossman Slam, but Bull was the one selling, so they sold it like Bull’s shoulder was hurt. It reminds me of Spike Dudley’s Acid Drop where you didn’t know if he hit the move half the time until someone sold it.

    Ciampa won with a rolling armbar. At least Bull lost. You might recall Kassius Ohno started getting a pretty good push after he was released.

    – Samoa Joe cut a promo saying he made NXT hot just by being here. It’s a shame for Sami Zayn to get beaten on for 2 falls instead of 1. Alex then asked Sami Zayn about it. Zayn said he’s been in plenty of 2 out of 3 Falls matches and he’s ready to do what he’s gotta do to become a 2-time NXT Champion.

    Nia Jax & Eva Marie defeated NXT Women’s Champion Bayley & Carmella

    Main event time! These four ladies have been in each others way going back to November when Bayley wrestled Eva Marie for the first time ever. This continued through Takeover, into the battle royal last month and Carmella’s title match 2 weeks ago.

    For everyone that has such high hopes that WWE’s Diva Division is going to get a total makeover, just remember that Eva Marie is still pegged as the next breakout Diva.

    The faces schooled Eva, who screamed for Nia’s help. I want to point out, in the interest of fairness, that Eva has improved ever so slightly. She used to show absolutely no expression during the match and at least now she yells in pain while selling. That’s a step up..

    Nia stayed in the match as much as possible, tagging Eva in for very specific spots and moments, things she couldn’t mess up. Bayley got the hot tag, which woke the crow up and did her entire comeback on Eva.

    Bayley had the match won with the Belly to Bayley, but Nia dragged Bayley off and headbutted her. Carmella tagged in and it became the Nia Jax Show. Nia attacked Carmella, gave a body attack to Bayley and dragged Eva over to her corner for the tag. Nia hit three legdrops on Carmella before Eva tagged herself in and got the pin!

    – The show ended with Rich Brennan interviewing William Regal and Finn Balor. Mr. Regal told Finn that he is closing in on the record for longest reigning NXT Champion. mr. regal finished the show by telling Finn that next week he will face the longest reigning NXT Champion ever….Neville! That should be one amazing match and we have two straight weeks of amazing matches coming up.

    But until next time, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!

  • Lucha Underground results: Johnny Mundo vs. Cage; Taya Valkyrie debuts

    The show opens with a recap of Mundo and Cage talking smack last week before transitioning to Texano beating up Chavo. The recap ends with Cage kicking Mundo’s ass and hitting Weapon X. We hear a monologue about how “Ian just thought Vampiro was a voice in the head” and how Vampiro would be freed from Ian’s mind thanks to using Pentagon Jr. So basically, “Vampiro” is like the alien symbiote in Spider-Man.

    Striker and black rimmed glasses Vamp welcome us to the show. Jack Evans interrupts Melissa Santos and tells the crowd to be quiet – the hero they didn’t know they had was trying to speak.

    PJ Black vs. Jack Evans

    Striker gets in his second “Dr. Black” reference in regards to PJ Black, and Evans gets a cheapshot to the gut off a handshake. PJ lands some shots, but gets crotched up top briefly. German suplex gets 2, and Black lands a suplex after Evans goes for a spinning headscissors. Striker gets off a wacky line and Vamp threatens to take away his notes. Drago is in the crowd looking “Lucifer-iffic” according to Striker.  Evans talks smack and tosses a water bottle at Drago, so he comes down. This distraction lets PJ hit the Black Diamond lifting cutter for 2.5, but a mist attempt misses, hits Black and the bridging backslide wins for Evans.

    Famous B gets a wacky ’80s used car salesman ad saying that if you call his number, he’ll make ya famous! This was hilarious, and had a VHS filter on that is perfect for El Rey. King Cuerno is just in the ring for a match, against Killshot.

    King Cuerno vs. Killshot

    Lots of chops and kicks to start this off. Killshot sends him to the floor with a nasty chop and gets a flip dive. Cuerno recovers and goes for a Thrill of the Hunt off the apron to the floor, but it gets countered into a cutter off the apron instead. We get a boo/yay punch exchange that turns into a chop exchange. A nasty single leg dropkick hits from Cuerno! Killshot goes for a middle rope moonsault, but eats a kick to the gut. They go for tombstones and counters before Killshot decides “no, the TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER isn’t enough – and gets a gutbuster”. Cuerno recovers and hits the Thrill of the Hunt to win. Cuerno goes for the Thrill of the Kill piledriver, but Fenix saves Killshot. Next, Taxano faces Chavo and the Crew in a gauntlet match.

    Texano vs. The Crew and Chavo Guerrero – Gauntlet Match

    Chavo sends Mr. Cisco out first. Texano superkicks him while Striker says that Lt. Loco is losing it. Chavo distracts him, so Castro can attack – but he eats a back elbow. Corner lariats hit for Texano, but he then eats a high kick in the corner. Tornado DDT gets 2 for Castro. Castro goes for a La Magistrol, but Texano gets one of his own after a wacky lucha setup. Discus elbow by Castro leads to him running in and eating a powerbomb for the win. Chavo jumps Texano and gets 2. Shortarm lariat hits for Chavo, and Striker calls him a man who was at one point one of the best in the world. Vamp rightfully buries him for this. Texano runs wild with a big forearm smash in the corner. Big backdrop hits for Texano. Texano goes for a suplex on the apron, but Castro uses the bullrope to hold the foot down ala Heenan doing so to Warrior to give Rude the win at WrestleMania V.

    375 miles from Boyle Heights, Matanza kills some dudes inside the warehouse. Dario tells Black Lotus that she started a war, and that their mother hurt Dario and Matanza. One day, he stood up to her and he wasn’t strong enough then to back up his words. Matanza saved him from a hot iron, but Matanza hit her with the red bull decoration until he killed her. For Dario, it was a happy memory and he leaned how much he loved violence that day. Catrina saunters around the Temple and Pentagon Jr. tells her that the needs to go teach Prince Puma a lesson.

    She tells him that she has no reason to give him the match, and as is customary, a wacky kung fu movie fight broke out. Pentagon wins and gets her in the arm snapper position – so she gives him his match, disappears, reappears in the other corner and tells him he’s got his match, but he has made the biggest mistake he could ever make. Johnny Mundo comes out to face Cage. Cage is still a machine.

    Johnny Mundo vs. Cage

    Mundo slaps him to start and takes him down for some mounted punches. They get up and Mundo gets some gut punches and then eats a hopefully low-carb lariat. Hiptoss into a neckbreaker lands for Cage. They fight up top and Johnny hops down the apron to kick Cage. They go to the floor and Mundo gets a step-up dive using the ringpost! Mundo grinds him down with a chinlock. Mundo avoids a pumphandle and Mundo lands a calf kick. Cage lands a backdrop and hits a lariat. Cage gets 2 off a sitout Albama slam-style powerbomb. 

    Mundo gets his back/neckbreaker combo and goes for the End of the World, but gets stopped and chopped for 2. Mundo lands a superkick on the apron and slides through for a sunset flip for 2. Mundo’s foot is caught and hits a flip kick, but eats a Lucha Destroyer for 2. Flying Chuck hits for Mundo, but the End of the World misses. Discus lariat hits and he stares at Mil. Weapon X hits before Taya Valkyrie comes out. Mundo cracks him in the head with a lead pipe to win. Taya and Johnny put the furry boots to Cage. Taya saunters into the corner and lands a pair of shotgun knees to the face.

    Cuerno goes to Catrina’s office and says that Fenix won’t die and he’s tired of carrying the title around – he wants his title match. Catrina tells him that he’ll get a match – against Fenix for the Gift of the Gods Title. Catrina says that Fenix can fly, and she hopes Cuerno can too because it’s a ladder match.

    To see every screenshot for the show, just click here.

  • WWE Smackdown spoilers: AJ Styles/Chris Jericho/Mark Henry vs. New Day

    For this week’s show from Indianapolis, airing in Canada on Wednesday and in the U.S. on Thursday:

    – WWE Champion HHH came out to significant cheers. There was a podium with the title belt. They played the Reigns injury angle from RAW, and said he’d beat Reigns at WrestleMania.

    Sheamus & Wade Barrett & Rusev & Alberto Del Rio beat Kalisto & Sin Cara & Neville & Dolph Ziggler

    Barrett wrestled for the first time in months. Sheamus pinned Neville with the Brogue kick.

    – Kevin Owens was being interviewed by Renee Young. He offered Dean Ambrose an I-C title rematch tonight. The idea was it was a grandstand challenge since Ambrose was “injured” from the Lesnar angle. Owens said that he wanted to wrestle Ambrose, but if he’s not there, he’s taking the night off.  Big Show came out. This set up a title match for later in the show.

    – Devon Dudley beat Jimmy Uso quickly with a roll-up.

    – They did a video where they announced that Undertaker would be at Raw on Monday night in Nashville.

    – They aired a Godfather Hall of Fame video.

    WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens beat Big Show via countout

    The finish came when Show was crotched on the top rope, fell to the floor, and couldn’t get back in the ring. Owens grabbed his belt and left as quick as he could before Show recovered.

    Becky Lynch NC Natalya when Naomi and Tamina attacked both of them

    Sasha Banks made the save. Charlotte came out and said the Lynch vs. Banks match for the title shot at WrestleMania will be on Raw on Monday night.

    R-Truth beat Heath Slater

    The finish saw Goldust punch Slater behind the ref’s back. R-Truth didn’t see it either, but when he saw it on the replay, he got mad at Goldust.

    – New Day did an interview prior to the main event.

    A.J. Styles & Chris Jericho & Mark Henry beat WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E/Kofi/Xavier Woods)

    Styles made Woods tap to the calf crusher. There was a spot where Jericho jumped in the way of a kick by Kingston aimed at Styles and Jericho sold it big.

    – Notes from tonight’s tapings:

    They announced that Night of Champions would be taking place at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on 9/25 with the code WWEPRE for pre-sale tickets.

  • Conor McGregor needs a new opponent for UFC 196

    In a cruel plot twist for one of the year’s most anticipated fights, UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos suffered a broken foot in training last week and is out of his Saturday, March 5th main event against UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, confirmed by MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.

    According to Helwani, UFC is looking for a short-notice replacement for McGregor which should sound familar as a similar situation happened last July when Jose Aldo had to pull out of his fight with the Irishman due to a broken rib. RDA (25-7) was looking for the second defense of his lightweight gold, while McGregor (19-2) was to make his UFC debut at 155 pounds.

    If they can’t, Holly Holm’s first defense of her women’s bantamweight title against Miesha Tate would be bumped up to the main event. The show also features our Tom Lawlor returning to action vs. Corey Anderson and Diego Sanchez vs. Jim Miller.

  • Charles “Godfather” Wright riding the train right into the WWE Hall of Fame

    WWE officially announced Monday through Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden that Charles “The Godfather” Wright will join Sting in the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame class.

    The Freebirds, Jacqueline and announcer John Bradshaw Layfield are also expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks, while the Wright announcement is expected to be announced on Raw tonight.

    Wright, who started his career as the Soul Taker in Memphis, was a Monster Factory trainee after being a high school basketball star in San Jose, CA. Mark “Undertaker” Calaway, who had been friends with him before both were in WWE, arranged for him to meet with WWE officials. They liked his size at 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds at the time which was a lot of what main events were based on in that era.

    He started as Papa Shango, doing a voodoo gimmick, feuding with Ultimate Warrior. The character got a big push and a lot of attention, but had a mixed reaction. He had a second run as Kama The Supreme Fighting Machine, modeled after Kimo, a UFC star in that era. He then changed to Kama Mustafa in the Nation of Domination before eventually finding the role he’s most remembered for as The Godfather, who started as a heel but became a strong show opening babyface, mostly for his ring entrance coming to the ring with distinctive music with his “ho’s”, and then mostly doing short matches.

    Between stints and after wrestling, Wright worked managing a strip club in Las Vegas.

  • NXT Philly live results: Austin Aries teams with Finn Balor; Sami Zayn battles A-Ry

    Submitted by Richard Kelly

    Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady vs. The Vaudevillains

    Fun little comedy match, not a lot to it. The two teams did the chicken fight spot with Enzo on Cass’ shoulders and English on Gotch’s shoulders, and then Enzo and English had a fake boxing fight in the middle of the match with Gotch and Cass as the corner men. Got a nice “This is boxing” chant, rather than the “This is wrestling” chant. Cass got the hot tag, they won with the Rocket Launcher. 

    Carmella vs. Peyton Royce

    Carmella isn’t very good, Peyton Royce got very little reaction but wrestled very well. Crowd wasn’t too into this, Carmella won with a Bronco Buster and then her flatliner/headscissors combo for the submission win. 

    Apollo Crews vs. Elias Samson

    Drifter got booed to high heaven. Before the match started, he made the announcer hold the microphone so he could play his guitar and sing a song; I heard none of it because the crowd was booing and chanting “Shut the f*ck up” very loudly. Crews is great and why he isn’t a top guy on Raw is beyond me. This was an okay slow paced match, Crews won with his backdrop powerbomb. 

    NXT Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss

    Bayley was insanely over. She went out into the crowd twice before the match started to hug people and play with the fans. Fans did all of the Bayley songs that all of the other crowds have done, but I found it lame and annoying. This was a decent match, comparable to their TV match from a month or so ago, Bayley won with a Bayley to Belly out of nowhere. 

    Sami Zayn vs. Alex Riley

    Sami was over like crazy, Riley was booed like crazy. Not much to this match at all. Riley got the heat, Sami made his comeback, won with the Helluva Kick. My section had a great time heckling Alex Riley.

    Asuka vs. Eva Marie

    Eva was also booed to high heaven and tried cutting a promo, but again I couldn’t hear anything over the boos. She is very very bad live. Yikes. She did a few suplexes that looked fine, but everything else she did, moves, strikes, selling, etc, was all bad. And I don’t know who decided to give Eva a 7 minute heat segment in like an 8 minute match, but that was not a good decision. Crowd had fun chanting “Is this wrestling” and “You still got it” to Eva, but I was very bored by this. 

    Samoa Joe & Baron Corbin vs. NXT Champion Finn Balor & Austin Aries

    Joe and Corbin were out first and then Aries’ music hit and the place went crazy. I’ve not seen Aries wrestle much ever, but wow is he good. Him and Joe worked well together, Corbin did a good job with everyone. Corbin almost botched a tilt-a-whirl powerslam spot but saved it. Finn got a hot tag, and they did the spot where Joe has the choke, goes to lay down but Finn rolls out of it and hits a standing double stomp, but then sold the ankle after the move, so good little touch there for him if that was a sell job. Aries got the hot tag after that, cleaned house, and then Balor won after hitting a Bloody Sunday on Corbin for the win. They posed together after the match. This was definitely the best match of the night. 

    Final Thoughts:

    Overall, it was a house show. A little disappointed no American Alpha or Dash and Dawson, and a little upset Sami didn’t wrestle someone better and have a better match, but it was fine. Last year in May in Philly, Bayley was over, but she was just a girl on the roster. Now, she has such an overarching fanbase and is so popular with everyone, including children. And she’s a great wrestler who is really developing a sense with the crowd and how to work with other people. She’s really a superstar. I’d say half the people tonight have so much talent and are capable of being megastars on the main roster. Just remains to be seen what they do with it. 

  • UFC puts B.J. Penn return on hold following sexual assault allegation

    The UFC announced Thursday that they have postponed plans to use Hall of Famer B.J. Penn on an upcoming show after a sexual assault claim was made against him.

    “UFC is aware of the recent allegations made against B.J. Penn. The organization requires all athletes who compete in the UFC to act in an ethical and responsible manner, as detailed in the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy. UFC will not tolerate violations of the policy. Every athlete is deserving of proper review and this situation, as with any serious investigations, will be investigated by an independent party and thoroughly reviewed by the UFC.  The UFC organization will also cooperate with any law enforcement investigations.  In light of the serious allegations, UFC has postponed plans to book Penn for an upcoming bout until more details are determined.

    “UFC holds athletes who compete in the organization to the highest standard and will continue to take appropriate action, if and when warranted.  It is important to note that Penn is considered innocent until proven guilty and UFC is not prejudging this matter.”

    Earlier in the week, Pedro Carrasco, a former reporter with BJPenn.com that had left the site in October, had gone on Twitter with allegations that Penn had sexually assaulted his girlfriend.

    Even though this alleged attack took place in Hilo, Hawaii, the alleged victim, a 29-year-old woman, filed a police report on Tuesday in Delaware County, Ohio, claiming the incident took place in August. The report has been sent to the Hilo, Hawaii, police department.

    Penn, 37, who had retired after a loss to Frankie Edgar on July 6, 2014, was expected to return on UFC’s April 23 show, although that had not been officially announced by the company. He has been training at Greg Jackson’s gym in New Mexico.

  • Lucha Underground results: Pentagon Jr. battles Prince Puma; Rey Mysterio the teacher

    Last week, Kobra Moon debuted and beat Bengala. Drago also lost to Jack Evans, who calls himself the Dragon Slayer now. Fenix beat King Cuerno in a last man standing match – but the title wasn’t on the line. Also, Cortez Castro was revealed to be an undercover cop on the case of Dario Cueto, and we were introduced to Detective Joey Ryan. A recap of the season’s biggest in-ring events so far airs, showcasing Pentagon Jr’s arm snapping of Mil, and Ivelisse facing Muertes.

     Ivie comes into Catraina’s office and wants the Disciples of Death tonight. Catrina says there are no instant rematches here, and Catrina makes a match with Ivie’s team against a new trios team – while brandishing a letter opener, licking it, and then stabbing her desk with it. Catrina wins the Slammy for most seductive use of a letter opener in wrestling history. Vamp says that tonight, Pentagon Jr. will beat Prince Puma, and Ivie’s team is ready for action.

    Ivelisse, Son of Havoc, and Angelico vs. Chavo Guerrero and The Crew

    Striker says that Castro will cut you with a box cutter while Vamp says that the Guerreros are dirty. Cisco kicks and slaps Angelico to start. Quick armdrag by Angelico takes him down. Ivie comes in and Cortez wrestles her into the corner. Ivie kicks Cortez hard resulting in a silent swear, before some big knees to the face. Chavo eats some big kicks from Ivie, but he tags in Cisco – who can’t do much until Havoc comes in. Havoc sweeps the leg and gets 2 off a standing moonsault. Muta-style handspring elbow in the corner. He goes for a dropkick off the top, but Chavo trips him up. Cisco gets 2 off a suplex. Angelico tags in and gets a run-up shining wizard using Cortez’s back to leap onto Cisco. Face team does a triple dive before Angelico does a flying dive into the ring and a big double stomp to win. Chavo argues with The Crew before Texano comes down and attacks The Crew while Chavo escapes. 

    Johnny Mundo tells us that he has facts to share – he is the top star in Lucha Underground, but hasn’t been treated like the star that he is. He’s a main event guy and was only in the opener at Ultima Lucha. Mundo mocks Cage for only saying he’s a machine – but he’ll make the machine obsolete. Johnny Mundo attacks some kickpads, and shockingly, no ninjas come out to attack him in this vignette. Joey Ryan tells “Reyes” that he took a beating – so their non-LU names are their actual names in this universe, which is amusing. Cortez and Ryan are partners who just don’t get along – so they should be tag champions any week now. Joey Ryan comes down to the most ’70s porno music in the history of ’70s porno. Vamp talks about Ryan remembering him of some tapes he saw in his uncle closet from the ’70s. Striker says that Cage defies convention and how he isn’t a guy who takes part in fads. Vamp says that Cage is just like a normal guy – all 320 pounds and 2% body fat of him.

    Cage vs. Joey Ryan

    Joey gets backed into a corner, but fights back with his lollipop. Cage hiptosses him into a backbreaker, but misses a corner shoulder charge. Joey traps the arm for a Northern Lights suplex. Cage throws awful punches to the gut, while Joey responds with boots to the face. Joey Ryan eats a dropkick and a snap powerslam before he flips up and misses a moonsault. Cage hits a pumphandle suplex facebuster for 2. Striker, the genius, determines that MAYBE trying to get Cage winded is the key to beating him. Ryan goes for a kneeling superkick, but gets countered into a powerbomb on the knee and then a Steiner Screwdriver hits for the win. Mundo attacks with a spear and punches to Cage. Mundo goes for the End of the World, but gets tripped up. Cage hits Weapon X, which makes the pumphandle suplex facebuster seem simplistic by comparison. Cage says he isn’t a man, he is a machine. Please get him a second catchphrase. 

    Rey spars with Dragon Azteca Jr. before saying that they’re preparing for war. Rey tells us that 25 years ago, Dario’s father met Dragon Azteca and they wanted to have the seven Aztec tribes unite in battle. Dario Sr. got obsessed with the dark side and made sacrifices – including sacrificing his son Matanza to a god. Rey says that their goal is to unite the seven tribes once again. Striker says that Cage faces Mundo in next week’s main event. Tonight’s is Prince Puma vs. Pentagon Jr, which is up now. Puma’s out first, followed by Pentagon in a Perros Del Mal-style Cero Miedo shirt.

    Prince Puma vs. Pentagon Jr.

    A huge “Cero Miedo” chant breaks out, followed by a “Pen-ta-gon!” chant. Puma goes for a flipping headscissors, but Pentagon carthweels out. A tumbling exchange leads to a flying headscissors by Puma. Pentagon pulls him to the floor to chop him do death. Pentagon puts him against the rope for THE LOUDEST chop to the chest ever. Pentagon lands a powerbomb onto the knee ala Cage for 2. Fakeout cutter hits for Puma. Puma lands a gorgeous springboard lariat before hitting a spinning dive onto the floor. Puma goes for the Regalplex, but Pentagon blocks it with elbows to the neck.

    Pentagon is followed into the corner, but lands a pop-up backstabber for 2. Pumphandle neckbreaker is blocked by Puma, who armdrags him and hits a European uppercut. Quebrada from Puma is countered by a dropkick to the gut for 2. Puma avoids a package piledriver and lands a spinkick. Springboard 450 is countered by knees to the gut and a cradle for 2. Pentagon lands a superkick and the package piledriver before going for a Romero special. Puma turns it into a pinfall for a seeming dual pin, but Puma got his shoulders up – so Pentagon pinned himself. Pentagon attacks the ref, but gets his face kicked off by Puma. Puma teases an arm snap, but talks to Pentagon and stops. Muertes stands tall on his throne.

    After the credits, Sexy Star escapes Marty’s lair and meets a guy. She tells him that it’s “moth” – but not Marty, it’s HER and we don’t so see her as we fade to black. This was a pretty solid episode of the show. It built up to Pentagon Jr. losing his mind more, and we saw more with Sexy Star and learned about Marty’s sister to some degree. Mundo looked great in his skit, while the Rey and Dragon Azteca Jr. story moved forward.

    To see every screenshot taken for the show, just click here.